Britain’s James Ward posted his first ever win at a Masters series event to reach the second round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

The British No2 defeated two top-100 ranked players in qualifying and a third in Spain’s Guillermo García-López in the first round. Ward, who will now play either Julien Benneteau or Blaz Rola, recovered from losing the second set to triumph 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 against the world No32.

Ward has had a good run on the North American hard courts at second-tier Challenger level and carried that form into Tuesday’s match. He beat the world No78 Tobias Kamke of Germany and France’s world No86 Paul-Henri Mathieu in the qualifiers, while García-López, in contrast, was on a four-match losing run and his lack of confidence showed in the first set in a lacklustre opening set. Ward missed eight break points in the first game of the second set and was made to pay as García-López levelled the match.But the British player responded superbly, winning the first five games of the decider and securing victory on his first match point. Ward is only 11 places adrift of his highest ever ranking of 137 and has already guaranteed himself $21,945 (£13,000) in prize money.

The British No1 Andy Murray will play Portugal’s João Sousa on Wednesday, after being handed a bye in the first round.

Venus Williams was the surprise exit of the first round in the women’s draw in Cincinnati as she was knocked out by the Czech Lucie Safarova. Having managed only two points in a first-set tie-break, the world No17 broke the American four times in the last two sets to win 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. Venus had seemed to be on the comeback trail after defeating her younger sister Serena, the world No1 in Montreal at the weekend, although she had gone on to lose to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the final.

The defending champion Victoria Azarenka had to withdraw with a knee injury. “This is probably the biggest disappointment, to not be able to play in front of this amazing crowd,” said Azarenka who says she will be fit for the US Open.